62 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



is the doubt whether the cock and hen were really of the 

 same breed. 



The Paduan fowl has been continually mentioned as 

 something distinct and primitive, by those who have 

 quoted Aldrovandi, but let us for the present discard the 

 term, and sweep the birds into the class of Polands. 

 Whether they were really first brought from Poland it 

 is difficult to know; but the fact is quite possible. 

 Fowls brought alive from India to Europe, by the over- 

 land journey, would suffer less than such as were sent 

 by sea round the Cape of Good Hope. At the end of 

 each day's journey, they could be let loose immediately, 

 that the spot for the night bivouac was fixed upon ; they 

 would soon learn to return at dusk to their travelling hen 

 house, and would be well refreshed against the next 

 day's fatigue. In Russia, the finest teas are received 

 overland from the East ; nor is it improbable that a few 

 fowls may have been carried as far as the neighboring 

 country of Poland, after having accompanied some 

 wealthy merchant, as live stock to be eaten by the way 

 in case of sickness, or short commons. But whether 

 correct or not, it would be difficult now to alter their 

 nomenclature. Moubray says, "Perhaps the genuine 

 sort, (of Polish,) has always five claws ;" and he pro- 

 ceeds to derive the famous Dorking breed from them, 

 with the reservation, however, that such a speculation 

 may be groundless, which it decidedly is. For the fifth 

 toe vanishes from the Dorkings at a very early stage of 

 crossing with any other breed. 



The Black Polish Fowls are of a uniform black, both 

 cock and hen, glossed with metallic green. The head 

 is ornamented with a handsome crest of white feathers 

 springing from a fleshy prtuberance, and fronted more 

 or less deeply with black. The comb is merely two or 

 three spikes, and the wattles are rather small. Both 

 male and female are the same in color, except that the 

 cock has frequently narrow stripes of white in the wav- 

 ing feathers of the tail ; a sign, it is said, of true breed- 

 ing. The hens also have two or three feathers on each 

 side of the tail, tinged in the tip with white. They 



